Greetings! We are enjoying our last full day on the QM2 and the last full day of true vacation for this trip. The ship picks up the pilot off eastern Long Island at 3:45 am tomorrow and we proceed towards the docks in Brooklyn, passing by all sorts of great landmarks before the crack of dawn (we are probably not going to get any pictures). Tomorrow is a very “fun” travel day, starting with our departure from the ship at 8:15 am, followed by the lovely passage through US immigrations and customs, which can be more difficult and just as friendly as Russia. Then we board a bus and transfer to one of my favorite airports in the world (not!) – LaGuardia, where we have hours to kill before our United flight to Denver at 2:59 pm.

The last time we flew out of this charming airport was in March, 2008 after a short visit to New York to see some operas. We were walking towards our gate when we were accosted by some surly rent-a-cop (not TSA) who said that we could only bring one carry-on with us (I had a purse and a small roller bag). I argued with this person to no avail, saying that every other airport in the United States allows one carry-on bag and one handbag or briefcase and was told “Not at dis airport, Sis” and was given the choice of going back to the main terminal and checking the bag, which had medications and other valuables in it, or trying to stuff my purse into the carry-on (finally done with great difficulty). The clincher was when we got into the gate area and saw dozens of other passengers with multiple carry-ons who obviously escaped the scrutiny of Deputy Fife. Can’t wait!

Last night we had dinner in the Todd English specialty restaurant and it was excellent, with artisan breads to accompany our beef tenderloin with a lobster garnish. Steve had a goat cheese appetizer and I had garlic shrimp. We washed this down with an excellent South African Shiraz-Viognier blend.
For dessert I had a dark chocolate pudding (not an adequate description) and Steve had a cinnamon carrot cake. Yummy!

We didn’t get a chance to do the watercolor class yesterday; apparently it was something that was on-going throughout the voyage, which we didn’t know. Instead, we jammed ourselves into the Golden Lion Pub for lunch, watching the tail end of the Paraguay-Japan match, which ended in a shootout, and hanging around for the entire Spain-Portugal game, which was rather exciting (uh-oh, time for us to get home if “football” starts looking interesting). I just loved the fish & chips at the pub.

The seas got a bit bouncy during the night, but nothing really significant. Weather is still cloudy, windy and gloomy, but warming up.

We will post some pictures of the ship hopefully later this afternoon after we pack.